BGSU Closing Golf Course

[gmartin]

I posted this in another forum but since the football field is next to the golf course I posted it here as well.

I just read in the Toledo Blade that BGSU is closing it's golf course for good at the end of this season. Such a shame. Do you think the University would sell the course and have someone else take it over or is the land to valuable to the University?

[factman]

Certainly should NOT sell the land, but possibly lease the business.

[Flipper]

That would be an awesome location for a mix of University/private tech education...a tech business park combined with instructional opportunities. Could revitalize the entire University. But then... I think golf is stupid, so...

[gmartin]

If we could just schedule Ohio State, Michigan State, Maryland and an SEC school every year we could pull in over 4 million extra dollars. Over 50 years that would be 200 million. Maybe the new location of our new football field in 2067!!

[FalconTurf]

No other options to attach a 100 acres or so to the campus for future projects this easily. Any expansion of that size would have to be across 75. No way they would sell it unless some politician has eyes for it's use for business development and forces them to sell.

[gmartin]

Does the University own the driving range property? Maybe the city will use that to enhance its water treatment. Maybe the airport will purchase that.

[gmartin]

Maybe the University will use the area closest to Mercer and the ball diamonds and build an on-campus hotel. All the athletes coming from out of town could stay there freeing up rooms at the other area hotels.

[BGSU33]

I'm betting BGSU will cut down all the trees, drain the lake, flatten the hill and pave the entire area and make it one big-ass parking lot....because the university feels there just can't be enough surface lots on and around campus. Either that, or they'll sell the land and a factory will be built on the site with several smoke stacks pumping soot into the air as the new backdrop for all of our athletic facilities. I'm really hoping BG doesn't mess this up and thinks long and hard about the impact on the future of the site. I don't golf but I always thought it was cool that we had a campus course. I'd be happy to see BGSU simply keep the land and let it grow into a forest and with waking trails as a recreation area but I know that's not gonna happen.

[zete]

It would be a shame to destroy all of those greens

[Flipper]

I'm betting BGSU will cut down all the trees, drain the lake, flatten the hill and pave the entire area and make it one big-ass parking lot....because the university feels there just can't be enough surface lots on and around campus. Either that, or they'll sell the land and a factory will be built on the site with several smoke stacks pumping soot into the air as the new backdrop for all of our athletic facilities. I'm really hoping BG doesn't mess this up and thinks long and hard about the impact on the future of the site. I don't golf but I always thought it was cool that we had a campus course. I'd be happy to see BGSU simply keep the land and let it grow into a forest and with waking trails as a recreation area but I know that's not gonna happen.

WTF? Why are you always such a knee jerk ...dare I say...Douche about everything re the University?

[hammb]

Golf courses are a great source of internal turmoil for me. I absolutely LOVE golf. I don't play as much as I used to (my god did I put a ton of rounds in at Creason as a student), but I still love to play. It's the ultimate "personal challenge" game. Sure you can compete with your buddies, but every round, every hole, every swing is a competition against yourself. That being said, on a per acre basis, golf courses might be the greatest scourge on the environment in America. Traditional British courses were built on land that naturally accommodated the game, but here it's all artificial. And keeping grass that green takes a ton of chemicals, while keeping it at the proper length for play takes a ton of fuel....turf grass is pretty much evil, and at the golf course level it's even moreso...

That said, the university has a chance here to build something great from that land. It's a TON of land. I would hope that a good chunk of it (holes 9-13 would be ideal) would become a parklike setting. Plant trees, plant native grasses, let it flourish. Put in some park benches, picnic tables, maybe a shelter area. Do a fish census and build the pond into a quality ecosystem and allow fishing... As a golf course the land was awful for the environment, give the land a chance to pay back its environmental debt.

Beyond something like that, I'm not sure what the university could use it for. It seems a bit "out there" to be convenient for student housing or new classroom buildings. Additional facilities for baseball/softball/tennis would make sense seeing that they're adjacent to the land already, but I doubt there is much money for facilities for those non-revenue sports.

Will be interesting to see what becomes of it. I would hope the University is very forward thinking before they sell it off, if that's what they intend to do. For exactly the reason that 33 mentioned, selling the land to the highest bidder is probably not in the best interest of the University.

[Lord_Byron]

I looked at all the threads on this, and still have the question:

What does this mean for the golf teams? Do we continue to sponsor?

[footballguy51]

I looked at all the threads on this, and still have the question:

What does this mean for the golf teams? Do we continue to sponsor?

They play at Stone Ridge because Forrest Creason does not have a high enough slope and rating.

[jpfalcon09]

Golf courses are a great source of internal turmoil for me. I absolutely LOVE golf. I don't play as much as I used to (my god did I put a ton of rounds in at Creason as a student), but I still love to play. It's the ultimate "personal challenge" game. Sure you can compete with your buddies, but every round, every hole, every swing is a competition against yourself. That being said, on a per acre basis, golf courses might be the greatest scourge on the environment in America. Traditional British courses were built on land that naturally accommodated the game, but here it's all artificial. And keeping grass that green takes a ton of chemicals, while keeping it at the proper length for play takes a ton of fuel....turf grass is pretty much evil, and at the golf course level it's even moreso...

That said, the university has a chance here to build something great from that land. It's a TON of land. I would hope that a good chunk of it (holes 9-13 would be ideal) would become a parklike setting. Plant trees, plant native grasses, let it flourish. Put in some park benches, picnic tables, maybe a shelter area. Do a fish census and build the pond into a quality ecosystem and allow fishing... As a golf course the land was awful for the environment, give the land a chance to pay back its environmental debt.

Beyond something like that, I'm not sure what the university could use it for. It seems a bit "out there" to be convenient for student housing or new classroom buildings. Additional facilities for baseball/softball/tennis would make sense seeing that they're adjacent to the land already, but I doubt there is much money for facilities for those non-revenue sports.

Will be interesting to see what becomes of it. I would hope the University is very forward thinking before they sell it off, if that's what they intend to do. For exactly the reason that 33 mentioned, selling the land to the highest bidder is probably not in the best interest of the University.

Green space would be nice. I know when I was a student the university was trying to create a natural flora area across from the course off Poe, but the area eventually became overrun by invasive species and some pretty nasty spiders. I imagine they've since abandoned that plan given how quickly it deteriorated. I hope they don't sell it off, but my best guess is that's the way they'd be leaning if the course was hemorrhaging money for the past several years. Additionally, I'm sure many of us don't want it to become an eyesore as it's somewhat of a gateway to university grounds when coming in on 75 S.

[hammb]

Golf courses are a great source of internal turmoil for me. I absolutely LOVE golf. I don't play as much as I used to (my god did I put a ton of rounds in at Creason as a student), but I still love to play. It's the ultimate "personal challenge" game. Sure you can compete with your buddies, but every round, every hole, every swing is a competition against yourself. That being said, on a per acre basis, golf courses might be the greatest scourge on the environment in America. Traditional British courses were built on land that naturally accommodated the game, but here it's all artificial. And keeping grass that green takes a ton of chemicals, while keeping it at the proper length for play takes a ton of fuel....turf grass is pretty much evil, and at the golf course level it's even moreso...

That said, the university has a chance here to build something great from that land. It's a TON of land. I would hope that a good chunk of it (holes 9-13 would be ideal) would become a parklike setting. Plant trees, plant native grasses, let it flourish. Put in some park benches, picnic tables, maybe a shelter area. Do a fish census and build the pond into a quality ecosystem and allow fishing... As a golf course the land was awful for the environment, give the land a chance to pay back its environmental debt.

Beyond something like that, I'm not sure what the university could use it for. It seems a bit "out there" to be convenient for student housing or new classroom buildings. Additional facilities for baseball/softball/tennis would make sense seeing that they're adjacent to the land already, but I doubt there is much money for facilities for those non-revenue sports.

Will be interesting to see what becomes of it. I would hope the University is very forward thinking before they sell it off, if that's what they intend to do. For exactly the reason that 33 mentioned, selling the land to the highest bidder is probably not in the best interest of the University.

Green space would be nice. I know when I was a student the university was trying to create a natural flora area across from the course off Poe, but the area eventually became overrun by invasive species and some pretty nasty spiders. I imagine they've since abandoned that plan given how quickly it deteriorated. I hope they don't sell it off, but my best guess is that's the way they'd be leaning if the course was hemorrhaging money for the past several years. Additionally, I'm sure many of us don't want it to become an eyesore as it's somewhat of a gateway to university grounds when coming in on 75 S.

I vaguely remember them trying to create that natural flora area next to the driving range...

And yeah, sadly, building spaces for native flora to flourish takes careful management with far too many invasive species that will try to take over.

But with an environmental science program, it seems like it could be a ripe area to try...and of course having some "free labor" with environmental science students that you'd think would be interested in such a thing.

And at this point in time we should ALL like to see anything that provides some places for honeybees to thrive.

Obviously that's not an endgame for the entire area...it's far too much area, but I'd love to see the side with the hill & lake turned into some sort of quality park/environmental science area. BG doesn't have nearly enough nature habitat areas, IMO...as difficult as that may be to imagine right next to I-75...